Lightyear Case Study: MSA Safety

MSA Safety is a global leader in safety products, protecting workers across industries. With 5,000+ employees and ~80 locations worldwide, its lean network team manages a complex, global telecom infrastructure.

Meet the Client

Established in 1914, MSA Safety Incorporated is the global leader in the development, manufacture and supply of safety products. Its portfolio spans thousands of solutions—from self-contained breathing apparatuses, gas and flame detection systems, to industrial head protection and fall protection equipment.

Today, MSA operates facilities and offices across nearly 80 locations worldwide. Its network environment is built on SD-WAN, with 90% of sites—particularly manufacturing facilities—relying on redundant DIA circuits to ensure continuous operations, while the remaining locations leverage broadband or wireless depending on local availability and infrastructure.

AJ Emery, Network Team Lead at MSA, oversees the telecom operations for the company's extensive global footprint. AJ leads a lean team, including a senior engineer and an engineer based in Poland who manages the European half of the network. His team is responsible for ensuring reliable connectivity across diverse international locations—each with unique carrier landscapes, site-specific requirements, and availability challenges.

In a recent conversation, AJ shared how MSA partnered with Lightyear to modernize its once fragmented network, centralize its circuit inventory into a single system of record, and streamline international procurement across its global footprint.

Note: Since this conversation, AJ has transitioned out of his role at MSA Safety.

Fragmented Management Across Continents

Before Lightyear, MSA's network was handled through a patchwork approach. Legacy services were managed through a combination of different brokers, direct-to-provider relationships, and regional IT teams making independent purchasing decisions. Everything was tracked across spreadsheets and multiple provider portals—a process AJ describes as "very antiquated."

For the network team, this fragmentation quickly became overwhelming. Beyond lacking a centralized system of record, the day-to-day administrative burden was crushing. AJ spent his time chasing providers, relaying information between regional IT teams, and navigating time zones and language barriers just to get initial RFPs done.

When AJ wasn’t involved, regional IT teams would then operate independently, and local convenience often took precedence over global network strategy. These teams—mostly desktop support staff who happened to be in-country and knew the local providers—would procure services on their own, creating visibility gaps and inconsistent infrastructure decisions.

Over time, this fragmented approach created another all-too-familiar ISP procurement pitfall: the renewal trap. Without the time or visibility to fully evaluate alternatives, the team defaulted to renewing existing circuits year after year—even when better or more cost-effective options were available.

A Single Platform for Global Operations

MSA then found Lightyear at a Gartner conference. The timing couldn't have been better—MSA knew the current approach wasn't working, and it was time for a solution that could scale with its international footprint.

Bringing the Network Into a Digital System of Record 

The first step was bringing MSA's sprawling network into focus. Lightyear's Network Inventory Manager consolidated services from multiple brokers, provider portals, and regional systems into one centralized view. For the first time, MSA has a full scope of its network with 30+ data points per service.

This consolidation immediately revealed opportunities. A cost-savings analysis uncovered $56K in potential annual savings on international circuits alone—services that had been quietly renewing for years simply because the team didn't have bandwidth or visibility to evaluate alternatives.

Simplifying International Procurement

With Lightyear's Network Inventory Manager seamlessly connected to the Procurement platform, the team can now identify on-net and near-net carriers in any market with access to Lightyear's proprietary pricing and network intelligence. Launching an RFP for a site in Singapore, Australia, or Berlin no longer requires weeks of research and back-and-forth with providers.

The platform also solved any last-mile visibility issues. "Lightyear definitely makes it easier by providing that information up front for you," AJ noted. He can now clearly see which provider is delivering the circuit, ensure true redundancy across sites, and—critically—no longer be the middleman.

Administrative Relief for a Lean Team

For a small team, the administrative relief has been transformative. All provider communications, quote tracking, and order management flow through the Lightyear platform. AJ stays in the loop on an as-needed basis, but Lightyear handles the heavy lifting.

Moving from Reactive to Strategic

Today, AJ's team operates with a new level of control and visibility over MSA's global network. With their entire inventory consolidated in one place, they're no longer trapped in the renewal cycle—instead, they're systematically working through the cost-savings opportunities identified by Lightyear, tackling the largest optimizations first.

The team has shifted from reactive firefighting to strategic network planning—confident they can deploy connectivity wherever MSA's business takes them next. Lightyear has transformed what was once an overwhelming administrative burden into a manageable, strategic operation, giving MSA the foundation to scale its global infrastructure.